In a significant development, New York City has agreed to pay more than $13 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit representing approximately 1,300 people who faced arrests or violence at the hands of police during the city’s racial injustice demonstrations in the summer of 2020. The settlement, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday, is believed to be one of the highest ever paid in a lawsuit involving mass arrests.
The lawsuit specifically targeted 18 of the various protests that erupted in New York City in the aftermath of the police officer’s shooting of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Except in specific situations, any person arrested or subjected to force by NYPD officers during those events will be eligible for $9,950 in compensation under the terms of the settlement.
The arrangement is a relief for the city since it allows it to avoid a potentially costly and politically charged trial. Many other cities in the United States are also negotiating settlements with protesters who took part in the Black Lives Matter protests, in which approximately 10,000 people were arrested within a few days to protest racist police brutality following Floyd’s death, according to the Associated Press.
The National Lawyers Guild represented the plaintiffs in the New York complaint, which accused NYPD leaders of violating the demonstrators’ First Amendment rights through an organized campaign of indiscriminate brutality and wrongful arrests. The city’s counsel, on the other hand, contended that the police were responding to chaotic and unprecedented events, citing cases of disorderly protests in which police vehicles were set on fire and officers were attacked with rocks and plastic bottles.
During the 2020 protest marches, NYPD cops used kettling, a crowd control practice in which peaceful protestors were herded into small spaces and attacked with batons and pepper spray before being mass-arrested. Adama Sow, one of the listed plaintiffs, explained how their marching group was surrounded by police without warning, resulting in torture and distress.
The city relied on qualified immunity throughout the litigation, which protects police officers from lawsuits arising from authorized conduct performed in the line of duty. The city justified the move to arrest medics and legal observers, claiming that the department was within its powers to do so.
The complaint named former Mayor Bill de Blasio, retired NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, and other police executives as defendants, while the settlement does not force either the city or the NYPD to admit guilt.
However, unlike several other lawsuits relating to the 2020 protests, which seek injunctive relief, the settlement does not attempt to change the NYPD’s procedures.
Another class action settlement was reached earlier this year, granting $21,500 to people arrested during a protest in the Bronx, potentially costing the city $10 million in legal fees. Furthermore, over 600 people have filed individual claims against New York City for police abuses during the 2020 protests, with roughly half of them obtaining in settlements and resolutions totaling nearly $12 million.